Billboard Casts Shadow Of Fear Over Park Residents

Now Swanson is reluctantly considering moving from the sign that is supported by a post less than a yard from her mobile home in Silver Star Village.

Swanson, 79, said she is afraid her home will be crushed by falling pieces if the billboard is hit by high winds.

Besides that, she and some of her neighbors say the billboard, which stands 50 feet above the ground, looks bad and may decrease the resale value of their homes in the park near Hiawassee and Silver Star roads. Residents own their homes but rent the lots. The park is owned by Aspen Enterprises of Michigan.

Swanson said she is very upset about the sign.

''It's making me paranoid. It's right over my home. It's there, I don't have to look at it to know it's there,'' she said.

''To sit on your porch and look at that monstrosity night after night is the most awful thing that has happened to us. It's very depressing. We think it's very unfair and unjust to do this to us,'' said Ruth Hamilton, one of Swanson's neighbors who has lived in the park for seven years.

Mary Whiting, another neighbor, said the billboard ''makes the whole area look so commercialized.''

Swanson said she would like to see the sign removed, or else she wants to be moved elsewhere in the park.

However, she is not eager to move. ''I didn't want to be disturbed. I thought I was settled for life.''

Ed Stevens, manager of the 424-unit adult mobile home community, has promised to move Swanson, who bought her mobile home less than two years ago. ''She has been informed if she's unhappy, we'll move her. Just as soon as I get a vacant lot in the park, we'll move her home at no cost to her,'' he said. It should be a couple of months before a lot becomes available, he said. Stevens and Andy Anderson, president of Peterson Outdoor Advertising Corp., said the billboard does not pose a danger to the park.

In violent weather ''the mobile homes would be destroyed before the sign,'' Anderson said.

The company is within its rights to install the billboard. It obtained the necessary building permit from the county to place it on the commercially zoned land it is renting from the park's owner.

About 600 feet of the park property along Silver Star west of Hiawassee is zoned for commercial use, said Sharon Smith, county zoning director.

The billboard ended up being placed close to Swanson's home because of setback requirements, zoning officials said. The sign was required to be 25 feet from the intersection, Smith said.

The billboard is part of Peterson's operation. Because Central Florida is a hot real estate market, ''we lose locations on a daily basis and we have to replace them,'' Anderson said.